


Alluring

by Luki



Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [4]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Day 4 - (Re)invention, Dr. STONE Week, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25019971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luki/pseuds/Luki
Summary: In one world, Tsukasa meets Senku at 18, tries to kill him, and starts the stone war.In another, Tsukasa met Senku at 7, and began a friendship that survives even the apocalypse.In a world where Senku never needed to find Ishigami Village, Ishigami Village finds him.
Series: Dr. Stone Week: Luki Edition [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811146
Comments: 10
Kudos: 241
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	Alluring

**Author's Note:**

> Actually got this one done with time to spare! Day 4 of Dr. Stone Week: (Re)Invention - Different First Meetings.

Once upon a time, Tsukasa first met Senku in the stone world, eighteen years old and jaded at life. When he realises the chance he has, he declares Senku and the past his enemy, and sets about creating a new world.

Once upon another time, he first met Senku when he was seven years old, on the side of a riverbank, defending the odd boy and his experiments. When he wakes up in the stone world, his ideals align perfectly with Senku's.

In one world, one leaves and joins forces with a primitive villager to prepare for an upcoming war.

In another, there is no need to leave, and the village remains untouched...

* * *

“ _ Please Kohaku. It’s been two weeks. Chrome’s never been gone this long before...” _

As far as Kohaku is concerned, Chrome had better be in mortal peril right now. Ruri had sounded terrified, and her condition always gets worse when she’s stressed. If it turns out he just got lost in the caves, she’d  **be** the mortal peril.

But, after checking the entrances, Kohaku can’t find any trace of him in his usual haunts. More importantly, she can’t find any signs that he’s in them. After a rather frightening incident a few years ago, Chrome has made a point to tie a rope to a branch or rock outside the cave he’s exploring, just in case he gets lost and Kohaku or someone comes looking for him. While it’s clear there’s been a rope, it’s no longer there – meaning Chrome was delayed by something  _ after _ leaving the caves.

...which means he might actually have run into trouble. Kohaku feels a little bad about her earlier thoughts right now.

She does manage to track down his footprints, pressed heavy into the ground from him and his full basket, but he’s clearly been going in the wrong direction – and this close to the village that could only have been intentional. Still, she keeps going, moving further and further east.

By the time she finally spots the familiar blue robes kneeling behind a tree, Kohaku has gone further than she ever has from the village. She’s never risked travelling this kind of distance, not when Ruri needs a bath daily, so when she sees Chrome’s back, the teen clearly not tied up or apparently in any harm, she feels her rage return. She runs forward, and smashes her fist straight down onto Chrome’s skull.

“ You ignorant jerk!”

The sorcerer makes a muffled sound, and pulls his head out of the dirt.

“ Dammit, Kohaku, what are you doing here?”

Kohaku growls, but before she can tear into him, his eyes widen.

“ Oh crap, get down!”

His hands clamp down on her wrists, and he pulls her down to his level.

“ Chrome, what are you-”

“ Shh!”

The sorcerer shoves a finger on his lips and uses his other hand to point at whatever he’d been so focused on looking at before. Her eyes follow the digit, and she tenses, instinctively ducking down.

Chrome had been staring at a clearing. An occupied one. There are five strangers sitting around a fire, talking and conversing. The leader appears to be the tallest, a man with intense muscles underneath his long hair, and a giant sword at his side – clearly a warrior. One of the other men is significantly older, and looks a little timid behind his decent build – possibly a prisoner, while another has a smaller frame, though still clearly muscular. There are also two girls, one even more muscular than Kohaku, with pigtails, and the woman closest to them, dressed in red, with long blonde hair.

“ I was making my way out of the caves and back to the village when I saw them walking through the forest,” Chrome whispers in explanation. “I was worried they were going to come to the village, so I tracked them.”

“ Did they find it?” Kohaku asks, tense at the idea, and is relieved when Chrome shakes his head.

“ No, they headed more north, but get this – they started digging up the stone statues, and pulled one up. Then they poured this liquid, and-”

He points at the older, timid looking man. “It turned into a person!”

Kohaku’s eyes go wide, and she looks back at the group. “That’s impossible. You must have been seeing things.”

“ I know what I saw!” Chrome hisses. “They must have used some super baaad sorcery or something, but the rock all broke away and revealed a person inside. They literally turned a rock into a person.”

Kohaku doesn’t believe it. She’s seen plenty of those statues broken in half, and it’s clearly rock inside. And yet, for all of Chrome’s antics, he’s not a liar. Anything he makes or claims is always backed up. 

There’s also the fact that Kohaku has been exploring this region for years, regularly having to collect the hot spring water, and has never seen anyone. In fact, while the village has stories of people who have been exiled from the village, she’s never once met a stranger. That there can be five walking through the woods right in front of them is just a little disconcerting, and suggests that their presence is new. Rocks becoming flesh could be a solution.

“ If they didn’t find the village, why are you still following them?” she asks, and Chrome finally drags his eyes away from the group, and digs into the basket by his side.

“ I was going to head back, but I went to check out the broken rock fragments left behind, and I found this.

He lifts out a knife, and Kohaku frowns.

“ They left a weapon? So what?”

She immediately flinches when Chrome thrusts it at her.

“ Just look at it Kohaku!”

The girl scowls, but grabs the weapon with one hand to assess it. Then her eyes widen, one hand sliding along the flat edge.

“ What on Earth?” she whispers, studying the knife in astonishment. She doesn’t recognise the material the blade is made from, and it’s much thinner than her own stone blades, but the sharpness, the sleek design…Kohaku has never seen anything like it.

“ I tested it out on a few things along the way, and it’s crazy sharp and strong,” Chrome says. “And they’re all carrying blades like this.”

Kohaku wonders for a moment if they can steal another knife so she can have a matching set, before she shakes her head to dismiss the notion.

“ And that’s not all,” Chrome insists, sounding far too excited. “Before they set that fire, they were using a portable light.”

“ What, like a torch?” Kohaku asks, thinking of the wooden sticks they set alight in the village.

“ No! Well, yes, but listen, this one was super baaad,” Chrome explains. “It wasn’t fire, and it was trapped behind this clear bubble device. It looked like they’d trapped a  _ star. _ ”

“ Are you sure you haven’t hit your head?” Kohaku replies, and Chrome groans.

“ Look, we have to keep following them,” he says. “Wherever they’ve come from, they must have some super baaad and powerful sorcerer in their village. We need to figure out where it is.”

His eyes are glowing like the strange contraption he’d spoken about, and Kohaku offers a silent apology to her sister for being the one to crush it.

“ Chrome, it’s too dangerous. We need to head back. These guys spell trouble.”

“ They haven’t seen me yet and I've been following them for days! Besides, we don’t know they’re dangerous,” Chrome contests, and Kohaku scowls.

“ Trust me, they are,” she warns. While Chrome might be focused on that strange light and the transformation of rock into flesh, she’d been focused on the group themselves. All but one are warriors, and as good as she is, if they’re carrying weapons of this strength, their chances of surviving are slim. Her blades will not be a match for this strange material.

“ It might be better to fall back, and get a team to track them,” Kohaku says. But Chrome is already shaking his head.

“ No way! By the time we get back, it’ll be morning, and we’ll never be able to catch up,” he says. “You do what you want, but I’m following them.”

“ Chrome, Ruri sent me out here because she was worried about you,” Kohaku hisses, pulling out the big guns. “Are you going to make me go back and tell her you’re out following dangerous strangers into unknown territory?”

The sorcerer flinches, the remark hitting home.

“ Trust me, Chrome. It’s better if we leave for now,” says, standing up with the knife still in hand. “You might have avoided detection so far, but if they-”

She freezes, staring at the group. Where there were five, now there’s only four. The tall one with the wild hair is missing.

“ Now where did you come from?”

Chrome yelps, and Kohaku swings round, eyes widening as she spots the stranger not a few feet from her, staring at them with narrowed eyes. He’s even taller than she’d thought, and he’s carrying that tremendously wide sword in his hand.

He’s assessing them too, his face becoming suspicious as he takes them in.

“ Blonde hair, and no crack marks?” he says. “You aren’t of the revived.”

Kohaku doesn’t understand the words, but lunges forward, blade extended.

“ Chrome, run!” she orders, throwing herself into the fight. The other teen jerks to attention, and tries to stand, but before he can move more than a few feet, her opponent has her crashing to the ground with that massive sword, knocking her weapons free and pinning her to the floor. In the distance, she thinks she can hear Chrome calling her name, but it’s hard to hear.

All she can see is the large, wild man walking towards her. He raises his hand high, and snaps it hard on Kohaku’s neck. She can still just about make out Chrome screaming, as everything goes black…

* * *

Tsukasa sighs as he gathers the two young spies under his arm, the boy having fallen even quicker than the girl. He suspects Senku will be unhappy with how he handled the situation, but given how the girl reacted, and how late it is, if they’d managed to get away, Tsukasa would never have been able to catch them.

And if there’s a civilisation already set up in this stone world, Senku will be desperate to talk to them. Especially considering what they were carrying.

With two unconscious body’s balanced carefully, he walks over and picks up the large basket before returning to the campfire. Most of his allies barely bat an eye when he returns with two prisoners, with the exception of one.

“ What happened!” Taiju wails, jumping to his feet in panic, taking in the out cold duo. “Are they hurt?”

Tsukasa shakes his head, dropping the basket and then delicately placing the two of them on the ground. 

“They’ve been following us. I’ve been suspecting a tail for some time. At first I thought it was a wayward member of the Kingdom, skipping out on their work. But just now I heard someone else approach, so I went to investigate.”

Nikki drops the bird leg she’s been chewing on to lean over. “They don’t look familiar. Where’d they come from?”

“ Huh, guess boss man Senku wasn’t the only guy to break out,” Minami offers, smiling at Tsukasa. “They didn’t try to fight you, did they?”

“ I couldn’t risk them getting away,” Tsukasa explains. “Nikki, Taiju, look for some rope so we can tie them up. We’ll take them back to the Kingdom of Science.”

“ Is...this how you normally do things?” the older man, Adachi, asks. Minami had selected him as the next revivalist due to his skills with glass blowing. They have two who have trained in the craft within the kingdom, but Adachi was a well known teacher, and they could use more with the skills considering Senku wants to have a phone completed by Spring. He’s no doubt still a little in shock regarding his revival, but doing well all things considered.

“ No, this is pretty unique,” Taiju says with a smile, handing Tsukasa some rope from his bag. “Don’t think we’ve run into anyone we haven’t revived before.”

Then he frowns. “But couldn’t we just ask them to come? Why do we need to take them prisoner?”

“ Once they attacked, I didn’t have much choice,” Tsukasa explains. “Senku will want to talk to them. If they agree to go willingly, we can untie them in the morning.”

He then glances back at the basket he’s settled by the group. It’s filled to the brim with different rocks, most of which he vaguely recognises as minerals Senku has asked them to look out for. Supplies of a scientific nature are in high demand, and if there’s a reliable source nearby, the scientist is going to want to know about it.

* * *

When Kohaku wakes up, it’s morning, her hands are tied behind her back, and she’s being carried through the forest by one of her captors.

She’s not proud of it, but rather than staying quiet and looking for a chance to escape, she screams, jerking her body as much as she can and writhing in the hold as if she was slathered in oil. The woman with pigtails immediately drops her, and she winces as she hits the ground, desperately trying to break the bindings.

“ Let me go!” she demands, and her eyes widen when she sees Chrome, slung over the shorter muscled man. “Chrome!”

His captor, inexplicably, looks panicked.

“ Hey, don’t worry! Your buddy’s just fine! He just hasn’t woken up yet, see?”

He gently removes Chrome from his shoulder, revealing that Chrome is sleeping – is in fact snoring – and she swears she’ll punch him into next week the second her hands are free.

The man who attacked them then steps forward.

“ My name is Tsukasa,” he says. “Who are you?”

Kohaku glares back, and Tsukasa sighs.

“ We are from the Kingdom of Science. You and your friend were clearly tailing us, so we’re taking you back.”

“ Chrome was following you,” Kohaku corrects. “I was trying to drag him back when you ambushed us.”

“ So, his name is Chrome?”

Kohaku hisses and bites her lip. Dammit, she hadn’t wanted to give him anything.

“ And ambush is a harsh term, considering you were the one with a blade in your hands and hiding from us.”

Okay, she has to wince at that. If the roles were reversed, she’d have this guy tied up too.

“ Tsukasa...”

“ It’s fine Minami, I have this.”

It’s rather frustrating how calm the man looks. She wishes he’d drop the act and treat her like the prisoner she is.

“ Tell me, what about this?” Tsukasa then asks, lifting Chrome’s basket off his back. “Where did you find these?”

Kohaku looks away, and he sighs.

“ We don’t mean you or friend any harm,” he says. “Hopefully, we can work together.”

“ Easy for you to offer, when we’re tied up,” Kohaku snipes back. Tsukasa stares at her, then reaches for her bindings. She pales instantly, trying to get to her feet, only for him to pull her up-

-and slices through the ropes on her hands, and then her feet, before pushing her away. She immediately jumps back, dearly wishing she had a weapon, and stares at the group.

“ There,” Tsukasa says. “No bindings. We just had to make sure you wouldn’t run away last night. If you’re still angry, feel free to run.”

Her eyes immediately dart to the man carrying Chrome.

“ Chrome is coming with us,” Tsukasa warns her. “Since he’s the one whose collection we need to speak about.”

“ No...no, it’s my rock collection!” Kohaku lies. Even if this is his mistake, she can’t let Chrome be taken – there’s no telling what they’ll do to him, and Ruri will never forgive her. Hell, she’ll never forgive herself.

“ Not a chance,” the woman in red says from where she’s standing with the rest of them. “If you were chasing him, you wouldn’t have lugged a basket like that around with you.”

“ Feel free to follow us,” Tsukasa offers. “We’ll untie Chrome when he wakes up, but we’re still taking him to the Kingdom of Science.”

Kohaku clenches her hands into fists, looks back in the direction of the village, and then turns her head back.

“ Fine,” she says. “But touch a hair on his head, and you’ll regret it.”

Tsukasa nods, and turns his back on her. That alone is irritating, but given that she’s unarmed, and how easily he took her out earlier, it’s not surprising. She quickly falls in step with the rest of them, her face looking like she sucked a lemon.

“ Sorry about all this,” her earlier captor offers. “I’m Nikki.”

“ And I’m Taiju!” the man carrying Chrome says. “And this is Adachi and Minami. Nice to meet you!”

The older man and the blonde wave, though they both stick close to Tsukasa. Kohaku glances at them all, and lets her shoulders sag.

“ Kohaku,” she says. At this point it can hardly hurt. “My name is Kohaku.”

* * *

Chrome wakes up about half an hour later, and reacts just as violently as she did. But since he’s not a warrior, Taiju barely even feels his attempts.

“ Let go of me! You’ll be sorry for attacking the great and amazing sorcerer Chrome!”

“ Chrome! Shut up!” Kohaku snaps, and her friend freezes.

“ Huh, Kohaku? What?”

He pales as he takes in the group, and swallows heavily.

“ O-oh...right.”

“ Morning!” Taiju says, oblivious to the apparent fear on his face, setting him down and cutting the bindings on his wrists. “I’m Taiju.”

“ Uh, I’m-”

“ You woke up just in time,” Tsukasa says, continuing to move forward. “We’re almost home.”

Kohaku tenses, wondering if she can grab Chrome and bolt even now. But Taiju has a hand clamped round one of his wrists, and Chrome is glaring at Tsukasa’s back where his basket is carried. Nikki is also keeping her eyes on her, so she fights the reaction, and keeps walking.

A few minutes later, both of them stop in their tracks, taking in just what lies ahead.

“ No way...” Chrome whispers, and Kohaku even stops breathing.

The trapped light Chrome had been describing last night is everywhere. Large bulbs at the tip of heavy logs, lightning a pathway towards a giant mountain, which is teeming with people. They’re still a little too far away to make out any major details, but from the way Chrome is hyperventilating, some of the devices they can make out must be some kind of incredible sorcery.

“ This is incredible,” someone says, and Kohaku realises it’s the timid Adachi. “You really made all of this in less than a year?”

“ Once Senku had the revival fluid recipe, things started moving quickly,” Taiju explains, though it means nothing to Kohaku. “It was really hard the first year, but thanks to Minami, we can make sure we revive the people we need first!”

“ I’m afraid you’ll be looking at a heavy work schedule for a while,” Nikki adds. “Senku’s a fan of backbreaking labour.”

“ What is all this?” Chrome asks, eyes wide. “How, what...this is crazy.”

He lunges at Taiju, and everyone tenses – right up until they realise he’s shaking Taiju with excitement, rather than fear.

“ How do you trap the stars in those lights? What’s the purpose of those ropes? Is it some kind of loading system? Where do you get that super baaad sharp rock for your weapons? I want to know everything!”

Taiju, who at first had looked panicked, suddenly bursts into laughter.

“ Oh man, Senku’s gonna  _ love _ you,” he says. “Nobody ever wants to listen to his long explanations on how things work.”

“ Senku?” Chrome repeats, and Kohaku frowns. Tsukasa has mentioned that name before. “Is that the sorcerer who made all this?”

Minami immediately starts giggling, and when Kohaku and Chrome glance over, Nikki and even Tsukasa are hiding smiles.

“ I think Senku would actually feel physical pain at being called a sorcerer,” Minami explains, once she’s stopped. “He’s a scientist.”

“ A scientist? What’s that?”

“ Chrome!” Kohaku snaps, and the sorcerer winces, but clams up.

As they finally reach the mountain, some very muscular men suddenly run up to Tsukasa, looking delighted to see him.

“ Tsukasa, you’re back!”

“ And you found that Adachi guy, awesome. Knew you could do it.”

“ Wait, who are those two?”

Tsukasa quickly raises a hand. “These two are VIP’s. Where is Senku right now? We have to speak to him as soon as possible.”

“ Um, I think he’s in the medical bay right now,” one of them says. “After you left, a few guys fell ill – he thinks someone worked too hard and caught something worse than the flu. They needed antibiotics, so he’s keeping an eye on them and trying out the sulfa drug.”

Both Kohaku and Chrome still, and glance at each other. Illness is a word they both know well, but antibiotics? Sulfa drug?

“ Are they all okay?” Minami asks, eyes wide, and the man grins.

“ Oh yeah, they’re all on the mend. Like Senku would ever give them something that doesn’t work. I can go get him for you, if you want?”

Tsukasa smiles. “Thank you. Let him know we’ll be waiting in the empty store room.”

The man frowns at his choice, but quickly runs off, and Tsukasa returns his attention to the rest of the group.

“ What about Gen?” he asks. “We need to get Adachi settled, until Senku and I have time to discuss the Kingdom at length.”

He looks over at Adachi. “Apologies, but given the circumstances-”

Adachi is already waving him off. “Honestly, I could do with some alone time right now.”

“ Pretty sure I saw Gen a few minutes ago. I can take you,” says another of the men, and Adachi is split from the group, before they enter the giant mountain, filled with holes.

Even more of the lights exist here, and Tsukasa opens a door hidden in a wall, before looking at Kohaku and Chrome, and gesturing for them to enter. With no alternative, both do – and the door is closed shut behind them.

Kohaku quickly scans the room – but empty is the word. There isn’t even a window or a small gap to see out of.

“ Just great,” she says. “We’re trapped.”

Chrome doesn’t answer, and when she looks over, she sees he’s slumped against a wall, his knees up to his chest while his arms are wrapped around them.

“ ...Chrome?” she asks. “Are you okay?”

“ I...I don’t know,” he says, voice weak. “I just...this place is crazy. I’ve been experimenting with sorcery for years, and yet, I’ve seen more in five minutes than I ever thought possible.”

Kohaku sighs. “This really isn’t the time to be admiring how dangerous this place is-”

“ But that’s just it,” Chrome interrupts, lifting up his head. “Maybe it’s the perfect time. Tsukasa said he just wanted to talk right? With this Senku guy? Maybe we can work out some kind of trade.”

“ Trade?”

“ Kohaku, they have medicine here,” Chrome whispers. “Look at all this sorcery. Maybe they have something that could help Ruri?”

Her eyes widen, but she forces down the hope she feels at the idea.

“ Even if they did, what can we offer them?” she asks. “If they found the village, they’d crush us without much effort.”

Chrome starts to smile. “But we do have something. The rocks.”

“ ...The...rocks?”

The sorcerer nods furiously. “Yeah. That Tsukasa guy carried my rocks all the way here. Why would he do that unless the sorcerer would value them?”

“ _ Tell me, what about this?” Tsukasa then asks, lifting Chrome’s basket off his back. “Where did you find these?” _

“ _ Chrome is coming with us,” Tsukasa warns her. “Since he’s the one whose collection we need to speak about.” _

Tsukasa’s words suddenly echo through her head, and the hope starts to burn again.

“ So, we trade rocks for medicine?” she says. “Why would they agree to that? Anyone can collect rock.”

“It can’t hurt to try,” Chrome counters.

Someone suddenly knocks on the door, and both of them get to their feet as Tsukasa appears again, followed by a stranger neither of them have seen, dressed in pale leather and with white hair spiked up to the ceiling.

“ Hi there,” he says with a grin. “I’m Senku. Sorry Tsukasa got a little overeager, but he meant well.”

Tsukasa huffs to himself, eyes closing in amusement, before he drops Chrome’s basket on the floor. Senku quickly grabs one of the rocks on the top of the pile, and starts playing with it in his hands.

“ So, Chrome,” Senku says. “Quite the collection you’ve got here. Willing to tell me where you found these?”

Chrome quickly steps forward. “Maybe, but I have a question for you first.”

Senku shrugs. “Sure, fire away.”

“I heard your people talking earlier ,” Chrome says. “About men who were sick, that you’d cured. Can you cure  _ any  _ illness?”

Senku frowns. “Any illness? No.”

Chrome sags where he stands, before Senku continues with- 

“Although, our cure-all sulpha drug can handle most diseases that we come across.”

“ A cure-all...” Kohaku whispers, and quickly joins Chrome.

“ Please, would you be willing to trade with us for that?” she asks, and Senku laughs.

“ If you need medicine, I’ll happily let you leave with some,” he says. “So long as you’re willing to help me locate more of these-”

He digs through the basket again, grinning at the rocks. “Do you know how hard it is to find any of these? We’ve had to ration everything we find, it’s been a supply nightmare.”

“ Wait, you don’t want the rocks themselves?” Chrome asks, a little confused. “Just the location?”

“ Hey, if you’re willing to do the hard labour, I won’t be complaining,” Senku says. “But knowing means I can go looking for something specific myself. So, do we have a deal?”

“ One more question,” Kohaku says, though that’s a lie in and of itself. “Before we agree to anything. Where did you come from?”

Senku frowns, and she pushes forward.

“ Tsukasa told that Adachi guy that you’ve only been here a year,” she says. “And you’re willing to trade priceless medicine for a bunch of rocks. Rocks that anyone who lives here would know how to find. You’re not from this land, so where did you come from?”

All humour drains from Senku and Tsukasa’s faces, and they share a look between them, before staring back at the two.

“ It’s a long story,” Senku warns. “Sure you want to hear it?”

Chrome is already nodding feverishly, and Kohaku nods. She needs to know, or she’ll never be able to trust this stranger, willing to offer a miracle for nothing. Senku sighs, and sits on the floor, immediately joined by Tsukasa, and the Ishigami villagers follow.

“ I guess we need to start at the beginning,” Senku says. “Nearly 3700 years ago...”

* * *

A few hours later, Kohaku and Chrome are waved out of the Kingdom of Science, arms laden with a new sword, a container filled with the cure-all sulfa drug, offers of a trade route, and the story of a scientist named Senku to bring back to Ishigami Village.

“Hey, come to think of it, we never told them where we were from,” Chrome says, once they’re a good distance out of the Kingdom. Already, he’s eager to return, wanting to study more under Senku’s biting but brilliant mind. “It never came up.”

“Well, they knew we were from a village somewhere west thanks to where they found us,” Kohaku answers. “I don’t think it matters too much if they know it’s called Ishigami Village. How many other villages are there around here?”

“True. I guess the name isn’t really important,” Chrome says. “So, how long till we can get back home and give this drug to Ruri? I want to tell her all about what we found, and all about a crazy scientist called Senku…”


End file.
